The race that stopped a nation

Add as a preferred source on Google

Sydney: There are occasions when one wishes that there should be some standard to measure human emotions in the same way we ascertain rain or, so to say, distance.

Had one such standard available to us it would have been interesting to record 110,000 spectators' emotions in Stadium Australia on Mondaynight when Australia's aboriginal track star Cathy Freeman sprinted to a comfortable win in 400 metres in the Olympics track and field championships.

Not only Cathy enthralled the Stadium Australia's record attendance but she also kept millions of Australian glued to their television screens for at least 10 minutes. As she prepared to run the sprint whole Australia was waitingsince Cathy finished just behind enigmatic Marie-Jose Perec of France in Atlanta edition of Olympics in 1996.

In the process of winning her pet event and taking a victory lap with both the national and also of her indigenous aboriginal people's representative flag,Cathy Freeman did what centuries of agreements and enactment of so-called Native Acts had failed to do.

She emerged as the most potent symbol of reconciliation between the two most disparate ethnic groups in Australia i.e., tiny community of aboriginesand vast populace of people of European descent.

The women's 400m event was billed as the showdown between the Atlanta winner and the world record holder Perec and Australia's very own and reigning world champion in 400m, Cathy Freeman.

But it was not to be as the French athlete did a 'runner'. Just a daybefore the qualification heats on Friday night and in a extremely intriguing manner Perec flew out of Sydney to Singapore claiming that she was beingstalked by someone.

Earlier, the reclusive-as-Greta Garbo French athlete had alleged that the Australia media was victimising her as she stood between Cathy and the gold medal.

But the observers were quick to rule out her allegations as unfounded. They had concluded that she was resorting to these tactics as she realised it would be nearly impossible to beat in form Cathy Freeman on her home ground and in daunting presence of her hundreds of thousands of screaming fans.

It is difficult to say whether Perec's presence would have made any difference to the final result of the women's 400m on Monday night. The only factor that could have caused Cathy to lose her composure couldhave been the tremendous pressure of living to the thousands of, especially her fellow aborigines, Australians' expectations.

Fortunately she delivered otherwise Monday, September 25 would have gone down in the Australian sporting chronicles as a 'black day'. On Tuesday morning Australian media is swamped with various images ofCathy Freeman in her 'astronaut' like bodysuit.

Volumes of newspaper columns are dedicated to the eulogies of the tiny Melbourne-based aboriginal athlete who dared to dream.

The women's 400m gold medal was the one the whole 'politically-correct' Australia was most looking forward to. Of late, Cathy emerged as a symbol of reconciliation between the two major ethnically diverse communities. The indigenous people have been alleging that Europeans annihilated their communities to usurp the island continent.

Cathy has been also at the forefront to seek an apology from the Prime Minister John Howard for 'stolen' generation and other alleged racially-discriminatory acts of the previous Australia governments.

Till 1972, this part of the world was governed under the White Australia regulations and the natives did not have much in the name of the civil liberties.

On Monday Cathy Freeman was allowed to carry 'aborigine' flag in her victory lap which is significant as International Olympic Council does not allow any expression with political intones to be aired in the Games.

India Abroad News Service